The United States on Monday unveiled a potential new player in the Ukraine war: Iran.
Newly declassified US intelligence indicates that Tehran is preparing to supply Russia with “hundreds” of drones – including those with weapons capability – for use in the war in Ukraine, White House officials said.
“Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs, with initial training session slated in as soon as early July. It’s unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House press briefing on Monday.
The BBC was reporting on that last night. Last I heard, Russia had it’s own commercial and military aircraft design and build capability, and a substantial space program. They have to buy drones from Iran?
I wonder how IRAN got a jump on the technology in drone design and use?
In 2011, the Iranians captured a US RQ-170 drone. There is apparently some disagreement on whether the drone was electronically hijacked by the Iranians and forced to land, or if the drone simply crashed and the Iranians found the wreckage.
The BBC was reporting on that last night. Last I heard, Russia had it’s own commercial and military aircraft design and build capability, and a substantial space program. They have to buy drones from Iran?
Russia sucks at tech. In “unboxing” videos of captured Russian drones, the main components are all of western manufacture. Canon cameras, western chipsets, etc. Russia clearly does not have the capacity to manufacture equipment like this on their own.
In 2011, the Iranians captured a US RQ-170 drone. There is apparently some disagreement on whether the drone was electronically hijacked by the Iranians and forced to land, or if the drone simply crashed and the Iranians found the wreckage.
Unmentioned in that story was the assassination of a top Iranian leader (and many others that were nearby) at an Iraqi airport by a US drone … a war crime in most places in the world? At a minimum it would be hard to protest a similar attack on a US leader by an Iranian drone?
Tim
Assassination of Qasem Soleimani 2020 U.S. dronestrike killing of an Iranian major general
On 3 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was killed by a U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport. The drone targeted and killed Soleimani while he was on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad. Soleimani was commander of the Quds Force, one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was considered the second mo.